I. Biography

• Gaeilge name: Risteárd Mac Suibhne (Uí Éire)
• English name: Richard Mc Sweeney (of Éire)
• Year of birth: 1955
• Place of birth: Isle of Éire
• Nationality: Irish
• Marital status: Happily
• Children: Son & Daughter
• Residence: Tallow, County Waterford, Éire

Self-designation & Lifestyle:

Self-originating philosopher-poet of the lyrical kind

Qualifications:

He has a BA in Korean Language & Literature which he conducted through the mediums of Korean and Classical Chinese.

MA in Chinese Philosophy conducted through the mediums of Korean and Classical Chinese
Distinction of having been the first Irish person in Korea to write a masters in Korean and Classical Chinese on Taoist text: The Chuang-Tzu at the prestigious Seoul National University.

Doctorate candidate in Chinese Philosophy at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
Adhering to a higher consideration, namely that of the education of his children he decided not to complete the program, but wisely chose instead to move the family to Ireland.

International experience:

• English Language Instructor for 2 years in the Foreign Language School at Seoul City University.
• Guest Lecturer for 9 years in the Department of English Language & Literature at Seoul City University.
• English Language & Literature Teacher for 3 years in Dar Al-Fikr School (Tutorial Section) in Jeddah
• English Language Instructor for 3 years in an isolated desert military cadet academy in Shahama in the UAE

Inspirational mentors:(*)

• 3rd century BCE Chinese Taoist philosopher Chuang-Tzu for his constant reminder that true philosophy is of the flight of the butterfly.
• 9th century CE Irish philosopher Iohannes Scottus Eriugena for his courage to freely speculate on even the greatest of human concerns, and in an age too when such profound questioning was looked upon as a waste of time.
• 16th century literary genius William Shakespeare for his admirable ability to transform his uncertainties with syntax into a powerful and enchanting art form.
• 20th century Lebanese poet, artist, philosopher Gibran Kahlil Gibran for his ability to beautifully give expression to the gardens of his inner world.

(*) Interestingly, that while his inspirational mentors for the most part have all been men, his writings have women taking center stage.

Primary influences on his writings:

• Spiritually: Native Éireinn, Christian, Jewish, Islamic.
• Philosophically: Nature of Éire, The Chuang-Tzu.
• Literarily: John M. Synge, Authorized Version of the Bible, Shakespeare.

Quotation:

“This eloquent, honourable road you have chosen be surely a solitary one, and oft quite lonely it will be for thee, yet be of a joyful courage for in like balance rewarding it will be.” (Source: Hearing in the Write, Canto 19, Ivy-muffled).

Books:

- Bradawn Yeats
- Visitant Eve
- A Green Desert Father
- Bridging Al-Serenities
- Unto Lineage Royal
- Innkeeper’s Fire
- Hearing in the Write
- Generations Reaching
- A Jesus of Nazareth
- Myriam of Lebanon

II. Books

Bradawn Yeats – A Khalil Gibran tribute to W.B. Yeats

Description:

Of an eve in December 2013, the voice of Khalil Gibran visits Irish philosopher, poet, publisher, Richard of Éire while the latter is enjoying a cup of tea in a hotel lobby in Cork city in Ireland. He has an extraordinary favour to ask. He explains that while he was in this life he had never produced a literary work dedicated to William Butler Yeats. He expresses that he has a growing need to sing a deeper song to the world; to build a greater tower in the sky which he would dedicate to Yeats. To give light of day to this aspiration he has sought out the attentive ear and diligent pen of Richard of Éire. Bradawn Yeats is this deeper song; this greater tower. This is a work that could also very well serve as an enlightening resource for both the everyday-in-the-world lay contemplative of any or no creed, and the cloistered; a means of introducing them to the possibility of familiar concepts having surprising and endless associations.

Myriam of Lebanon - Description:

This unique work, established on Gibran Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet presents a philosopher-poetess called Myriam from the Phoenician port city of Byblos of the land of Lebanon who visits the isle of Éire and while there shares of her profound wisdom.
The work is a bright beacon of hope and strength for our times and beyond; a beautiful and endearing work born of the green fields of Éire and the snow-capped mountains of Lebanon.

Chapter 1

The Dawnsong Annunciation

The Qadisha valley-spirit of Lubnan Mountain ever lives in inspiration; inspiration’s gateway being the issuer forth of ideas that nourish the needs of the times that be.

Subtle she is almost like as if she were making no effort at all.
Yet be she is most assuredly.

Only those who lend themselves to patiently and reverently standing in dawns and twilights can begin to appreciate her profound generosity.

Behold, hereupon is presented the Annunciation of the Qadisha valley-spirit of Lubnan Mountain, concerning Myriam the Beautiful; a fragrant scion from her upland groves.

In this scroll herewith, it is written for all to read in refined contemplation, and joyful anticipation, a goodly and timely message.

My Myriam my Beloved, who is my dawn and my fulfilment unto her own day, had waited seven years in my city isle of Éirelese for her ship that was to return and bear her back to my Lebanon, my land of her birth.

And in my seventh year, on my eight day of September, my month of reaping, she climbed my hill without my city walls and looked seaward; and she beheld her ship coming with my mist.

Then my gates of her heart were flung open, and her joy flew far out over my sea.

And she closed her eyes and prayed in my silences of her soul.

But as she descended my hill, my sadness came upon her, and she thought in her heart:

How shall I go in my peace and without my sorrow?
Nay, not without my wound in my spirit shall I leave this city.
Long were my days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were my nights of aloneness; and who can depart from her pain and her aloneness without her regret?
Too many fragments of my spirit have I scattered in these streets, and too many are my children of my longing that walk leafless among these hills, and I cannot withdraw from them without my burden and my ache.
It is not my garment I cast off this day, but my skin that I tear with my own hands.
Nor is it my thought I leave behind me, but my heart made sweet with my hunger and with my thirst.

Yet I cannot tarry longer.
My sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark.
For to stay, though my hours burn in my night, is to languish and fossilise and be bound in my mould.
Fain would I take with me all that is here.
But how shall I?
My voice cannot carry my tongue and my lips that gave it my wings.
Alone must it seek my ether.
And alone and without her nest shall my eagle fly across my sun.

Now when she reached my foot of my hill, she turned again towards my sea, and she saw her ship approaching, and upon her prow my mariners, my women and men of her own land…

A Jesus of Nazareth - Description:

A genre-breaking work readily encouraging and lending itself to comparison and contrast with the Holy Bible, the Holy Qur’an, and the Holy Tanakh as well as with the principal philosophical Taoist texts, namely the Tao Te Ching and The Chuang-Tzu.
Essentially a contemplative work, written as it is to be interpreted both exoterically and esoterically is an attempt to restore to the bright - the light, the memory, and the power of insight, dream, and intuition.

Chapter 1

Word being fulfilled

1:1 In the village of Nazareth in Galilee, having been born and raised, and now in your twenty-seventh year, and having only recently returned there, having spent seven years in wandering contemplation in the Middle Kingdom of Sinai, you will on the first Sunbathian of spring, enter into the temple, where according to custom you will be invited to stand up to read;

1:2 And there will be given over to you a roll of Isaiah, and having unfolded it, will find the place where it is written:

1:3 'The Spirit of The God is within me, to live the good news of the reign of The God: to bring about peace and joy; to bring about deliverance from unthinking.'

1:4 And having folded the roll; having given it back to the attendant, you will sit down, and the eyes of all in the temple will be gazing on you.

1:5 And you will begin to say unto them, 'From this the first Sunbathian of spring, is this word being fulfilled in your hearing;'

1:6 And all will be wondering at the gracious words that are mellifluously coming forth out of your mouth,

1:7 And they will be filled with a peace and a joy, that is new to them.

1:8 And after some time you will go on down, and sail across Lake Galilee to Capernaum, and daily teach,

1:9 And everyone will be astonished at your teaching, because your word will be with the authority of your heart.

1:10 And in the temple in Capernaum there will be a man, having a troublesome spirit, and he will cry out to you,

1:11 Saying, 'Away, what, to me? You have come to destroy me; I know you are, a holy one of The God.'

1:12 And you will quieten him, saying, 'Be silent, and come forth out of the man;' and the troublesome spirit having cast him into the midst, will come forth from him, having hurt him not…

Generations Reaching - Description:

This work is being presented as a time barque for the generations of our future, thence enabling them to know and to come to appreciate the reflections and aspirations that one of their ancestors had with respect to a sampling of life’s eternal concerns, while happily living simply and plainly with his wife and two children in a 21st century of his era, in a beautiful border village that the people of his day called Tallow, on the lovely isle they called Éire, of the fragile planet they called Earth.

Chapter 1

A fragrance so lovely

One sunny Saturday morning I was sweeping the footpath outside the front door of our house.
I was using a fine strong yard brush that I had bought down at Cunningham's the village hardware store.

As I was sweeping I was daydreaming.
And this is what I was dreaming.

"I am the Sun in the sky.
Truly I am the Sun and know nothing about any Human.
Then by somehow I find myself to be a Human.
Truly I am a Human and know nothing about any Sun."

With coming out of this daydream, I couldn't rightly say for sure whether I was a Human that had dreamt he was the Sun or the Sun that had dreamt it was a Human.

I thought to myself there must be some difference surely between being a Human and being the Sun.
Yet, do you know what?
I couldn't for the life of me say if I really knew what that difference might be.

Verily, I concluded that I am undergoing translations.
Now I am the Sun, then here a Human, and there about Something else; continuously translating.

And then it came to me that everything then must be undergoing translations all of the time.

This thought made a whole lot of goodly sense to me.
So I stopped the sweeping for a little while, and leant my oxter on the handle of the brush to look up at the sky that I may give that thought some further consideration.

Oh, I don't know for how long I was lost there in such fine contemplation, but didn't I find myself looking across the street at Kay's Flower shop.

Day after day she has it looking lovely; taking great care that the floral displays on the windows are always ahead of festive days such as Valentine's, Saint Patrick's, Daffodil and Mother's Day.

They often remind me of the classic 1960 movie “The Time Machine” in which the boutique across the street keeps changing with the times…

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